Ahhh! A neighbour of mine brought a friend over and she would like me to sew her a top. I found a drawing of what it looks like and it seems to be called a Choli. I couldn't say no since she is such a nice lady. She left me the top that she wants me to copy and some fabric. First, I need to find a pattern that looks like it and second I need to know what I should charge her for the work. I don't want to charge her too much because I don't do this for a living but I don't want to be too cheap otherwise I will end up being very busy.

I could purchase the pattern from Birchstreet folkwear but I don't have that much time OR I could copy the existing top she gave me. Would I have to take it apart to copy it? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

You don't have to take a garment apart to copy it. There are a couple of books on making patterns from clothes but you don't have time to order a book.

I have a special tracing wheel with needles on it that I use to copy a garment. I put a large piece of pattern paper on my padded work table and spread the garment on top of it, one sectin at a time, pinning the seams out etc. Then I go over the seam lines with my needle wheel and it makes a line of holes in the paper in the shape of each garment piece. Join the dots, add a seam allowance and you have the pattern.

I even traced off a complicated blouse with darts (trace one side of dart and centre then move the garment piece over by the dart width.

Yes its called a choli. But these days we just call it a blouse. Its worn with a sari. It's very fitted. The folkwear pattern would certainly work. I can't see why you cant use it, if you take her measurements.

Oh, and you must charge her something for this, unless you don't mind doing this every now and then for free. But before you know it, people will be bringing stuff to you to fix. -- Edited on 7/13/06 7:38 AM --

------Like Miss Frizzle says "Take chances, make mistakes ..." isn't that what fitting is all about? I am happily taking chances and making mistakes as I fit muslin after muslin ...
newmansneedle.blogspot.com

Casken, as for charges, here in California, getting a custom sari blouse sewn takes about $35.

I have made a muslin of the folkwear pattern and the pattern is authentic is in style. Sorry, no review. I had to go down a size from what was indicated by my measurements on the pattern envelope tho'. You want to make sure that the choli fits very snug to the body else it is considered old-lady style. LOL. Ofcourse, it should be still be comfortable and allow easy movement.

It is routine in India to give the tailor a blouse that fits you and ask him to make a copy.

There was an article in Threads last year about "tape" tacing clothes. Basically, you take painters masking tape (low tack) and fill in everything between the seamlines. Pull off the tape in one big sheet and you have a flat pattern. I tried this with some jeans, it worked pretty well.

------kristine

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